Here's a great story on the decision by one Pennsylvania school to ban the wearing of Uggs, or high top boots, that aren't snug. Students were coming to school with their cell phones hidden in their boots. Cell phones weren't allowed in this school. How many schools out there still don't allow students to bring cell phones to school, or discipline students who bring them to class? Would teachers like to tell stories about inventive teens who manage to hide cell phones so they can text during class?

Posted by Liz Bowie at 12:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
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The state board took the first steps yesterday to propose a significant change in the way school districts discipline students. They want schools to stop suspending students for non-violent offenses. So the student who comes to school with alcohol or talks back or cheats would not be suspended. One administrator suggested that if a student painted a swastika on the classroom window of a Jewish teacher, that teacher might see it as violence. But Jane Sundius of the Open Socity Institute noted that perhaps that was a great example of why out of school suspensions don't work. If the student is sent home for a day, he learns nothing about the Holocaust, and nothing about why that teacher might be angry or hurt. But if the student has to spend a Saturday at the Holocaust museum, perhaps he learns just how offensive his behavior really is. Many school teachers and administrators will disagree with the new suspension proposals. Some of them have already been expressing their views at the bottom of the story on the website. I would like to hear a debate on the blog about the pros and cons of this proposal. In particular, I would like to hear from teachers who were in the classroom before Columbine and before zero tolerance policies. How often were students sent home for more than a day and what were the most serious non-violent infractions? Did assistant principals and principals find other ways to discipline students? Did students write letters to their teacher when they were disrespectful? Did they stay after school? I would also like to hear from private school teachers. Are 8 percent of students in private schools suspended every year?

Posted by Liz Bowie at 2:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
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From our colleague Michael Dresser on the Maryland Politics blog:

When interim Maryland State School Superintendent Bernard J. Sadusky made a presentation before two House of Delegates committee Friday, he spelled out certain principles for flexibility under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

Alas, the folks at the Maryland State Department of Education showed a certain flexibility in spelling  "principle" as well. Time for a trip to the principal's office?

See the photo of the presentation here

Posted by Jennifer Badie at 8:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
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We report in a story today that seven counties in Maryland are not meeting their share of the burden to fund public schools, according to preliminary state figures. Anne Arundel and Talbot counties are two jurisdictins that dispute whether they are complying with a law that says a local jurisdiction's per pupil funding cannot decrease from one year to the next. Legislative leaders and county government leaders are calling on a change in the current law during this legislative session. 

Posted by Liz Bowie at 10:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
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A group of state education officials said Tuesday that a state-mandated education spending requirement for counties needs to be revamped to prevent local jurisdictions from underfunding education by $2.6 billion.

Officials from the Maryland State Education Association, Maryland Association of Boards of Education and the Montgomery County Education Association outlined efforts to request that the General Assembly make changes to the so-called maintenance of effort requirement that mandates counties fund school systems at the same per-pupil amount for the upcoming year as they did the current year.

The group that met at the State Education Association office in Annapolis on Tuesday said that the current maintenance of effort requirement it so “broken” and “weak” that it is being circumvented by local jurisdictions. They said in a prepared statement that if the General Assembly does not fix the law during the upcoming session the state runs the risk of “opening the door to $2.6 billion in local education cuts.”

Continue reading "Officials say maintenance of effort needs to be revamped" »

Posted by Jennifer Badie at 3:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Not long ago, Maryland had the money to offer one and two week summer programs around the state to gifted and talented students. These students, who have often been passed over in the rush to help low achieving kids, could learn about the ecology of the Chesapeake Bay in Cambridge, jazz music in Baltimore or history at St. Mary's City. From Western Maryland to the Eastern Shore, the state helped subsidize more than a dozen programs that allowed high achieving students to stretch their minds in the arts, sciences, and humanites.

But budget cuts shut down most of the programs several years ago, leaving only 10 available. Today, though, the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation has pledged to give $725,000 over three years to provide scholarships to 100 students to attend the programs at no cost. The money will allow bright students in high poverty areas who often get the opportunity to attend enrichment programs.

The summer centers are open to all gifted and talented students in the state.

Posted by Liz Bowie at 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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The U.S. Department of Education is expected to announce which states will be given Race to the Top money for early childhood education tomorrow. Maryland was one of the states that entered the Early Learning Challenge grants race. The announcement will be made at the White House at 10 am.

Maryland could win as much as $50 million and has pledged to spend the money on giving special education, low income and English language learners a head start to prepare them for primary school.

Posted by Liz Bowie at 5:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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More than five years ago, a group called ConnCAN formed in Connecticut to advocate for those who wanted to bring a more reform agenda to the state. Now with the backing of a national organization, the group is spreading to new states, including Maryland. MarylandCAN's new executive director, Curtis Valentine, began work in August and has been talking to educators and advocacy groups around the state since then. 

Half of the funding for MarylandCAN comes from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation. The remainder will need to be raised within the state through individual and foundation donations, according to Valentine. The agenda for MarylandCAN is still in the development stages, but Valentine said it should be clearer by the beginning of January.  Valentine said he is going around the state meeting with lots of people in the education community, including superintendents, parents, teachers and legislators, and asking: "Where can we really move the needle?"

Continue reading "New education reform advocacy group in Maryland " »

Posted by Liz Bowie at 5:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
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UMBC President Freeman A. Hrabowski III and university system Chancellor William E. Kirwan were among a group of education leaders who met with president Barack Obama on Monday to discuss strategies for controlling college costs.

“He made it very clear that he’s concerned about American families’ ability pay for college,” Hrabowski said of Obama.  “I was encouraged by the president’s willingness to listen carefully.”

Hrabowski said he and Kirwan described Maryland’s efforts to improve efficiency in its system and to redesign entry-level courses so students don’t waste money by failing them. The UMBC president added that the presence of two Maryland leaders in a group of only a dozen experts showed the esteem with which the state’s university system is regarded. 

Continue reading "Hrabowski and Kirwan meet with Obama to discuss price tag for college " »

Posted by Liz Bowie at 6:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
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Stevenson University president Kevin J. Manning ranked among the highest paid private college presidents in the country in 2009, according to a salary survey released Monday by The Chronicle of Higher Education.

With total compensation of $1.49 million, Manning ranked 15th among the 519 presidents in the survey.  Former Johns Hopkins President William J. Brody ranked second on the overall list, receiving $3.8 million, almost all from his retirement package, in his last year on the job. A story by my colleague, Childs Walker, details the compensation packages. 

Posted by Liz Bowie at 5:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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The Maryland State Board of Education is expected to vote tomorrow on whether to require athletes in public high schools to have a 2.0 grade point average to play on a sports team. While school officials are generally in favor of the new standard, which already exists in 16 districts, we wondered if some athletes will be unable to play. The new rule would be advise to school systems and not binding, however, it is expected to become accepted if it is passed by the board.

We are looking for teachers, principals, parents or athletes who are worried about the ramification on teams. We ask that anyone with an example, post a comment or get in touch with me at liz.bowie@baltsun.com.

Posted by Liz Bowie at 4:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
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A poll from our readers indicates that the overwhelming majority of people passionate enough to weigh in on the topic says it shouldn't. Eighty-two percent of our (more than 400, as of this post) readers agreed that cursive writing, in some way, still has value, and 18 percent said it should cease to be taught.

But what has been called a stale skill has spurred a fresh debate about what the next generation's set of literacy skills should include. My colleague Liz Bowie explored the local debate in a story this weekend.

I was so excited that Liz took on this topic, having been shocked (and somewhat appalled) when my mother, a retired teacher, recently scoffed at my argument that my favorite elementary school subject should still be an integral part of learning basic skills of reading and writing.

I was the student who sat at Dickey Hill Elementary School (not too, too long ago) and constructed the cursive alphabet (upper case and lower case) in dotted lines, just to trace them for practice. My notebooks were filled with the graffiti of perfecting my signature--which I considered the only thing other than my fingerprints that secured my identity.

Continue reading "Should cursive be written out of the curriculum?" »

Posted by Erica Green at 1:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)
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Julie Landsman, a Minnesota public school teacher and the author of books on race and education, will speak Wednesday, Nov. 30 at 6:30 pm in McGuire Hall at Loyola College. The lecture is entitled: "What has race got to do with it? Engagement, expectations and equity in our public schools." The event is open to the public and is free.

Posted by Liz Bowie at 5:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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The Maryland State Education Association is warning in a report released today that $2.6 billion could be cut from local school system budgets if a state law is not repaired.

The state's Thornton law ensured that local county governments could not reduce funding as the state ratcheted up its funding from 2002 on. The law said local governments had to "maintain their effort." But the law has been eroded over the years, and a number of school systems have reduced aid to education without seeking waivers.

The MSEA says about half of the local money is at risk, although the assumption is that no county would meet its commitment to continue the same level of funding. That isn't likely to happen in the Baltimore area. Only Anne Arundel County has reduced its MOE, and this year, Baltimore City and Baltimore County are not likely to reduce funds to education. Donald Mohler, Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz's chief of staff, said Kamenetz is "committed to fund BCPS at the maintenance of effort level" for the next fiscal year beginning in July.

But in Anne Arundel County, the report says, teachers will not get a raise this year. In addition, the county has not increased its teaching positions in the past several years, although enrollment grew by 2,000.

The next question is whether the Maryland General Assembly will restore any of the teeth in the law in the next session.

Posted by Liz Bowie at 7:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
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When she was hired in June 2007 to fix the Washington, D.C. schools, Michelle Rhee said she was "a 37-year-old Korean girl from Toledo, Ohio," the antithesis of the person everyone imagined would be picked. Rhee, who spoke at the Meyerhoff on Tuesday night to a nearly full house, went on to become a controversial leader who polarized some groups in the city and eventually lost her position when a new mayor was elected. But she did shake up the city schools and her voice of reform has struck a chord in cities like Baltimore. (She started her teaching career as a Teach for America teacher in Harlem Park.)
She was entertaining and mostly predictable for those who have followed her career and her philosophy on education. She put in place a new teacher evaluation system and tried to fire many school system employees.
 I left pondering one idea that I do not hear often today. Rhee said she believes students are being coddled and made to feel they are good at something when in fact they really aren't. She pointed to her two daughters, dreadful soccer players with a room full of ribbons and trophies to show for their effort. When she tells them what she believes it would take for them to be acceptable players- 90 minutes of hard work a day - she is met with blank stares.

Continue reading "Michelle Rhee speaks at the Meyerhoff " »

Posted by Liz Bowie at 6:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
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A university with multiple campuses “only adds complexity and public confusion to an already complex Maryland higher education structure.” The idea that a merged university will attract more federal grants is “poppycock.” Mergers are “not academic panaceas.”

These are all arguments that have been made by opponents of a proposed merger between Maryland’s leading public research campuses in Baltimore and College Park. But the words belong not to those critics but to the chief proponent of the merger, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller.

The trick is that Miller wrote them in 1992 when he opposed a proposed merger between the University of Maryland Baltimore and UMBC. Miller chuckled Thursday when asked if he remembered writing the 1992 article for a faculty publication at College Park.

 

Continue reading "The University of Maryland merger from two sides and the same voice " »

Posted by Liz Bowie at 4:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress give us facts but don't tell us what factors led to improvement in the state. Those determinations are left to everyone from education policy experts or classroom teachers.

Maryland scores were close to or at the national average back in 2003 and 2005, but scores begin to rise in nearly every test administration. So what was happening in 2004 through 2006 that led to the better scores on what is regarded as a uniformly rigorous national test? Andres Alonso, Baltimore's CEO, had an interesting observation yesterday. Those years were about the time Thornton funding had really kicked in. So he is making an educated guess that more money really does improve schools.

 He also points out that governors and legislators in Maryland, Republicans and Democrats, have generally  protected education funding. School systems may quibble with politicians in Annapolis over what they aren't getting, but in large measure, he said, Maryland has stayed the course in making education one of its highest priorities.

Continue reading "NAEP scores show improvement in Maryland " »

Posted by Liz Bowie at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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The Archdiocese of Baltimore said today that enrollment at its schools declined 4.3 percent this year, cutting the number of students who are leaving the Catholic school system in half. Last year, enrollment declined by 9 percent overall, and the Archdiocese closed schools and reorganized its system.

The Archdiocese said in a press release today that AdvanceEd, an accreditation organization, had recommended that the system be accreditated after evaluating the 60 schools in the system and the central offices.  A strategic plan completed last year after the reorganization was credited with stemming the decline in enrollment.

Posted by Liz Bowie at 2:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
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While there's been complaining in Baltimore County recently about the lack of air-conditiong and the overcrowding in schools, the city's teachers, parents, students and education advocates have banded together to try to get some solutions to their facilities problems. The group, Transform Baltimore, has started a campaign to get City Hall to agree to some more creative approaches to financing $2.8 billion in school construction needs.

On Nov. 3rd, Transform Baltimore will hold a Speak Out at 4:30 pm in the War Memorial Building where parents, teachers and students from 40 to 50 schools will tell stories about the deficiencies in their schools.

The mayor, city council members and state legislators will be invited to listen. Transform Baltimore has some solutions, including using a financing option that built and renovated 70 schools in Greenville, South Carolina's school district in five years.

Posted by Liz Bowie at 6:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
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In its latest effort to give depth to its Advanced Placement classes, the College Board said yesterday that AP Chemistry and AP Spanish Language and Culture are being redesigned. The new courses will take effect in the 2013-2014 school year. The College Board has been criticised by some teachers and parents who see some of the AP tests as promoting memorization and a broad, rather than deep, understanding of a subject. Responding to that criticism, the College Board said it will move the chemistry  course from the "lecture and demonstrate" model toward a more "hands on and interactive" approach. The National Science Foundation was involved in the redesign of the chemistry test. About 122,000 students take the chemistry exam each year.

The new Spanish test places more emphasis on what students can do with the language rather than what they know about the language, according to officials.

A new World History test was put in place this year and next year a new Biology, Latin and Spanish Language and Culture start next school year. More information is available at the College Board website at http://advancesinap.collegeboard.org/

Posted by Liz Bowie at 5:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
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Comptroller Peter Franchot, who hasn't gotten very far with the state board in his attempts to make a financial literacy course a requirement for graduation, said he's going to gather 10,000 signatures to support the idea. Franchot said he's already gotten about a third of the signatures  and he hopes to have the full number by the beginning of the legislative session this winter.

The state board has passed a requirement that financial literacy be integrated into the high school curriculum so that every student has some exposure to it, but Franchot wants a separate course required for students if they want a diploma. While few educators would disagree with the idea of having high school students become financially literate, I know many are concerned about the growing number of requirements for graduation. The more state mandated requirements there are the fewer spots in the schedule are open for electives. Often, those electives are the only chance a student has to pursue music, art and creative writing. What do teachers, parents and administrators think about this?

Should the legislature pass a billl requiring a free standing course on financial literacy as a requirement for graduation?

Posted by Liz Bowie at 2:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)
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Continue reading "German American Day Observed at McDaniel" »

Posted by Jennifer Badie at 1:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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The state school board is holding a series of open forums for members of the public to say what characteristics they would like to see in a new school superintendent. The public also may fill in an online survey at www.ecragroup.com/mdss  

 Nancy S. Grasmick, who held the job for nearly 20 years, retired in June.

Continue reading "Tell the state what type of leader is needed in next state school superintendent " »

Posted by Liz Bowie at 2:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Is it the water? Perhaps the leafy streets and old houses is what draws them? Or maybe it is just that two Nobel winners wanted really good schools for their children. This morning a neighborhood just south of Towson woke up to find it had its second Nobel Prize winner, Adam Riess who will share the prize with two others for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe through the observations of distant supernovae. Riess, 41, is an astronomy professor at Johns Hopkins University. Peter C. Agre, a Johns Hopkins School of Medicine biochemist, won in 2003 and lived in the neighborhood at the time as well.

Posted by Liz Bowie at 10:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Those bridge projects that everyone hoped would go away when they were introduced four or five years ago, are here to stay as long as the High School Assessments survive, it appears. Yes, more students, not fewer are using them to meet the HSA requirement, the state reported today. Bernard Sadusky, the interim state superintendent for schools, was originally in charge of those bridge projects for the state. In an interview today, he said he has interviewed hundreds of students about their experiences with the test and the bridge projects.  "We would like to see that number (of projects) decrease," he said. "I think we would have to take a strong look at the interventions" students are getting before they take the tests. "In my mind there is no reason every student can't pass the test." 

Continue reading "More bridge projects reported by state school officials " »

Posted by Liz Bowie at 6:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
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Maryland's graduation rate rose to - 87 percent - the highest in recent history, according to state officals. The bad news, however, is that the drop out rate has risen as well, apparently because of a poor economy.

We haven't heard from many school systems around the region, but Baltimore City CEO Andres Alonso called the system's graduation data "awesome." In the past four years, the city school graduation rate has risen 20 percent to 70 percent, a figure that is unusual he said among large urban school districts.

The other big news is that nearly half of schools in the state haven't met AYP.

We will update the blog through the day with more information as we sort through the recently released charts.

Posted by Liz Bowie at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
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On Tuesday the Maryland State Board of Education will continue its discussion of discipline policies, with a panel of experts to talk about the length of time a student can be out of school while appealing a suspension. The board also will discuss the search for a new state superintendent.
The meeting will begin at 9 a.m. at its Baltimore headquarters at 200 W. Baltimore Street and continue until late afternoon.
Discussion of the discipline policies is expected to begin at 2 p.m. The board also will hear a report on Maryland’s Race to the Top program and the SEED School, a public boarding school.

Posted by Liz Bowie at 9:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
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A campaign called Transform Baltimore has been taking shape as city activists make the rounds of back-to-school nights around the city to get parents to join a coalition that has been building to get the city's schools renovated or rebuilt. So far Transform Baltimore has gotten a warm reception at 49 of the first 50 schools they have gone to around the city, according to Bebe Verdery, the ACLU of Maryland's education director. The group has created a video which can be viewed on its website to show what can be done with federal stimulus funds to improve a school.

As the efforts get rolling in the city there's a separate campaign building among parents in Baltimore County who live along the York Road corridor from Hereford down to the city line where overcrowding has become a constant problem, particularly in the elementary schools.

Continue reading "Parents join effort to push for renovated schools " »

Posted by Liz Bowie at 9:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
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Maryland's schools, particularly Baltimore City, stand to receive millions of dollars under President Barack Obama's new jobs plan, according to our political reporter Annie Linskey.

According to our coverage, Maryland schools would receive $315.8 million in federal construction money and $114.2 million would be directed to Baltimore City Schools under the $447 billion jobs bill President Barack Obama sent to Congress this week.

The city's dilapidated school buildings, and the $2.8 billion needed to improve them has emerged as a top priority for lawmakers, community activists and state education officials. And recently, Baltimore County revealed that it also had a $2.2 billion need. State officials said conditions are similar across the state and a large-scale alternative financing plan is in the works.

The money is part of a $25 billion program the Obama administration says would be used to modernize 35,000 public school across the country. Of that money, $10 billion would be directed toward the 100 largest high-need public school districts, including Baltimore, Prince George's County and Montgomery County schools, according to a list released by the Obama administration.

This week, three Baltimore city teachers joined officials from the American Federation of Teachers in the White House Rose Garden to hear Obama present his plan. Afterward, they engaged in a one-hour discussion with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, where they joined teachers from across the country in sharing the struggles of their school districts.

In addition to the funding for school renovations, another $541.7 million would be used to help the state pay salaries for teachers, police and firefighters.

Baltimore teachers told Duncan about the pipes that leak dirty water into students' eyes, the strained budgets in their schools, and the need for stronger support of the nation's educators, said Terrell Williams, a teacher at Holabird Academy, who attended the events. 

Posted by Erica Green at 2:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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The start of the new school year was delayed a second day for students in Baltimore City, and those in Baltimore and Harford counties, as the districts continued to grapple with power outages and other weather-related issues at dozens of their school facilities on Monday. All of the systems, due to welcome students back from summer vacation on Monday, announced they will remain closed on Tuesday.

Anne Arundel County, whose opening day was rocked by an earthquake last week, also cancelled classes on Monday and Tuesday.

Howard and Carroll counties will open schools Tuesday, with a few exceptions. 

Continue reading "Area school systems close--again--before they ever open" »

Posted by Erica Green at 6:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
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For students in Anne Arundel County, the school year got off to a shaky start--literally--when an earthquake shook the region late afternoon Tuesday. The county opened schools on Tuesday--the first of the local jurisdictions--but classes were disrupted at 1:51 p.m. when the earthquake send trembles through the East Coast.

The remainder of the local systems are assessing what damage, if any, occured in their school buildings as they prepare to open schools next week. At least one Harford County high school reported a gas leak, and 23 schools in Baltimore County found light to moderate damage, such as cracks in exterior walls and displaced ceiling tiles. A Pasadena high school reported roof and other damage.

In Baltimore city, which has the oldest and most dilapidated school buildings in the state, 11 schools were identified by engineers Tuesday to have noted minor damage, particularly cracks in bricks, ceilings and stairwells, school officials said. The damages are not expected to impact city schools opening on Monday, Aug. 29.

School officials said that nothing appears to be structural or serious, but a second review of buildings was scheduled for Wednesday.

In our coverage of the earthquake today, building inspectors advise caution in the wake of the quake.

Posted by Erica Green at 12:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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While the Baltimore city school system has garnered a great deal of attention for its aging infastructure in the last year, a story by my colleague Liz Bowie this week finds that the strain of school facilities is being felt in systems throughout the state.

The story found that the need across Maryland is so great that state officials are beginning to investigate alternative financing arrangements that would give local governments large infusions of capital to build and renovate schools in a short period.

Baltimore County estimates it would have to spend $2.2 billion to modernize its school buildings, according to the most recent estimates, and that doesn't include the cost of any new schools. In the city, the need has been tallied at $2.8 billion, a statistic that civil rights activists have used to decry what they call deplorable conditions. Anne Arundel County has identified $1.9 billion in needed updates to school infrastructure and Howard County has a list of $500 million in projects.

Posted by Erica Green at 9:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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The Maryland State Board of Education hired Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates to lead the search for the next state school superintendent. The search firm is working under a $59,000 contract.

The search firm, which was used by Montgomery, Frederick, Carroll and Prince George's county school boards for recent searches for local school superintendents, will begin its work immediately. The Rosemont, Illlinois based firm also recently did the search for a new superintendent for Colorado.

Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates has led approximately 800 searches over the past 20 years, according to a press release by the department.

The search comes after the retirement of Nancy S. Grasmick who had been in the position for 20 years and announced earlier this year that she would be leaving the job. The board appointed Bernard Sadusky, a former Queen Anne's County superintendent who worked in the department for several years, to be an interim.

Posted by Liz Bowie at 6:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
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State education leaders began discussing a difficult, once almost taboo subject at a recent state board meeting: should we compensate teachers based on the quality of the job they do?

 The Maryland State Department of Education agreed when it applied and got Race to the Top funding to have counties that compensate teachers differently share their practices with other jurisdictions. Earlier this month, a work group of superintendents, human resource officers and union representatives met to look at how five jursdictions have tried to pay their teachers or principals differently. Anne Arundel, Montgomery, Prince George's, Queen Anne's and Washington counties have all developed new models for teacher compensation. Interestingly, most models have not been put in place because of lack of money. The recession hit just as these ideas were boiling to the surface. 

Continue reading "A toe in the water on linking teacher compensation to student growth" »

Posted by Liz Bowie at 5:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
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The president of the Baltimore International College sent a letter to students today which details the next steps for the college. Edgar Schick says that the college will submit a request for reconsideration with Middle States so that students can finish the program in January. If the reconsideration is not accepted, then the college will appeal.

A spokesman for the college said reconsideration would allow students close to a degree to finish their course work this fall and allow the other students to move their credits to another institution that might take over the BIC.

The following is a letter from the president:

Continue reading "Baltimore International College to file request with Middle States " »

Posted by Liz Bowie at 5:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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More than 200 teachers in Washington, D.C. were fired on Friday after they were rated ineffective on their performance evaluations, reports the Washington Post.

The teachers represented 5 percent of D.C.'s teaching force, and were dismissed after they received low ratings on an evaluation program known as IMPACT, which the Post said was developed under former D.C. Chancellor Michelle Rhee before she resigned last fall.

According to The Post, the evaluation system grades on the following: "five 30-minute classroom observations and their compliance with nine broad standards. These include the abilities to express course content clearly, teach students with differing skill levels and manage time effectively. For some teachers, half of their appraisal is contingent on whether students meet predicted improvement targets on standardized tests."

Posted by Erica Green at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
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In response to several comments on the blog, I wanted to let everyone know that while no date has yet been set for the release of the Maryland State Assessments, we expect them to be announced sometime next week, before State Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick retires. We do understand that many schools have now seen the results. Don't worry, we will report them as soon as they are released.

Posted by Liz Bowie at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
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Today in Annapolis, a work group set up by the governor to write a new teacher evaluation system issued its first report and it gives a lot of latitude to the seven school systems piloting it this coming school year, including the city and Baltimore County. The vote was 13 to 7 with pretty much all the members who represented teachers unions voting against the framework. Half of a teacher's evalution will be based on student growth, but it may well include portfolios of student work or benchmark tests. Of the 50 percent, 20 percent will be decided by the local system. One of the main points of discussion today was whether a teacher could still be rated as effective if her or his students weren't making academic progress. The answer was no.

Maryland has taken a go slow approach, and got special approval by the federal government late Friday to make the pilot a two year process. So after the seven districts pilot the evaluation system, the task force can come back and make changes. Then all 24 school districts will use it in the 2012-2013 school year on a no fault basis, giving state officials another year to make changes before it takes effect in the 2013-2014 school year. 

Posted by Liz Bowie at 1:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
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 Sometimes students love their teachers so much they don't really want the school year to end. I got this email today from Katie Evans, a third grade teacher at Shady Spring Elementary School, who wrote it yesterday.

On the last Monday before school let out for the summer, I was eating lunch with two third grade students of mine.  Both students were very energetic, football loving, Wrestle Mania fanatics.
 We chatted about the recent wrestling matches and argued that living in Baltimore means your
 favorite football team can not be the Indianapolis Colts or the New York Giants.  We had to agree to disagree on this topic. As our 30 minutes of pizza and Capri Suns slowly came to an end, one of the boys says to me, "If I had 3 wishes, I would wish for 2 more months of 3rd grade with you."  Now to anyone else, this might sound cute, which it is.
 But to me, it will sadly mark the last Monday that I will spend with these two very special boys.

Posted by Liz Bowie at 9:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
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With pressure to have more partially elected school boards in the region, we want to raise the question of whether at least a certain number of members of a board should have children in the public schools they oversee. Can that be assured with an elected board? 

Do board members with children in schools make better decisions?

Posted by Liz Bowie at 6:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
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In the past two weeks, we've seen unusually high temperatures,and that has meant school closings in Baltimore city and county, but not in other jurisications.

Those systems are the only ones that have been closing this week, not because they have administrations that are more sensitive to heat, but because every other surrounding county has fully air-conditioned its schools.  About 50 percent of the schools in the city and county aren't air conditioned, so the superintendents close their schools down several hours early or for the day if the temperature gets too high. The county has already announced it will close two hours early tomorrow.

Continue reading "Baltimore city and county schools close for heat" »

Posted by Liz Bowie at 6:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
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This graduation season, The Baltimore Sun is recognizing the hard work of the Class of 2011’s valedictorians and salutatorians. We have launched a database on our website that will showcase the accomplishments of these dedicated students.

We’re starting to receive submissions for the database, but check with your principal/administrator or email coordinators@baltsun.com for information on how to get your school’s valedictorian and/or salutatorian included if you don’t see them. We’re hoping to make it an all-inclusive look at the top students in the Baltimore area.

Continue reading "Sun database recognizes area valedictorians, salutatorians" »

Posted by Jennifer Badie at 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
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 There's a lot of talk about parents not being involved enough in their children's schools and education, but today the state honors 24 parents who have been exceptionally involved in a school, and one who has been given the fourth annual Comcast Parent Involvement Matters Award.

Shawna Capotosto of Frederick County works with the parents of special needs students to help them understand the system and find services so that their children can be successful in school. She advocates for children with special needs and sits with parents at  meetings with school officials. She serves on about half a dozen school committees. She won the award tonight at 6 p,m. at an award ceremony at North County High School in Glen Burnie.

Continue reading "Frederick County parent wins Comcast award tonight " »

Posted by Liz Bowie at 6:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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After today's story on a student in Anne Arundel suspended because she had pepper spray,  I received another call this morning from a parent upset about zero tolerance policies. This was a call that came from a county in the Baltimore metro area. The student had been suspended and arrested for a knife. His mother said he was depressed and worried that his mistake would screw up his life forever.

I was wondering what readers of the blog think about these instances of zero tolerance. Are there teachers who believe that the school policies serve a purpose and even if some students are caught in a rather unforgiving system, the cost is worth it to keep the rest of the school safe?

Or are more of you worried by the harm that is being done to students who are suspended?

Posted by Liz Bowie at 5:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
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 My colleague Don Marcus filed the following story:

Bailey Saint Clair received a standing ovation from many of his fellow University of Baltimore graduates during Sunday's commencement at the Lyric.  At 72, Saint Clair was not only the oldest of those receiving their diplomas, but also the most persistent.

 It took him 50 years to get there.

 Saint Clair, who grew up in Hamden, had earned his business degree in the spring of 1961, shortly after he had signed up to join the Air Force Reserves. According to Saint Clair, he was ordered to report to Lackland Air Force base in San Antonio, Tex. a week before he was set to walk at graduation.

Continue reading "University of Baltimore student walks across the stage at age 72 " »

Posted by Liz Bowie at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
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The debate over zero tolerance policies has been raging across Maryland for several years now. Some argue that to keep discipline and order in schools the rules have to be strictly enforced and punishments need to send a message.

On the other side are parents and other school officials who say that keeping students out of school does no good at all, and in fact may just leave students who already had discipline issues more behind in their school work and more likely to act out again.

In the story now on the web, I write about two lacrosse players who were suspended for having tools they used to fix lacrosse sticks: a lighter and a pen knife. Should the state board step in and try to set limits on zero tolerance policies in school districts or should each district be allowed to discipline students in a way that it sees fit?

Posted by Liz Bowie at 9:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (22)
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Our Annapolis reporter Julie Bykowicz reported in a story today that the state Board of Public Works approved $264 million for school construction to districts on Wednesday, and in an unprescedented development, two counties--Charles and Wicomico--turned down funding and two new buildings because they couldn't make a local match.

According to the story, the state's 23 counties and Baltimore asked for $612 million in state help for building schools — down from a peak of $894 million in fiscal year 2008.  Our politics blog delves into why school districts are seeking less capital funding this year.

Of note: Baltimore and Baltimore County received $32 million each for the fiscal year that begins July 1. In Baltimore, a chunk of the money will be used to complete Waverly Elementary/Middle School — the first new school to be built in the city since 1998. Baltimore County will spend much of the money on a major expansion of Hampton Elementary School. Howard County is to receive $23.4 million and Anne Arundel $29.2 million.

Posted by Erica Green at 4:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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I received an email about climate control at Parkville High School the other day. The custodian of the building wrote a letter to staff on one of the warmer days this spring trying to explain why it was that heat was coming out of some of the units. The custodian said that he must fire up at least one boiler every day so that the school will have hot water for the kitchen. The custodian told the staff that the heating system wasn't always connected to the water heater, but ever since the water heater went up a couple years ago, they are stuck with current problem. So until school is out, a little bit of heat will be coming into classrooms, which of course, aren't air-conditioned.

Posted by Liz Bowie at 4:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
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A Harvard educator and researcher has come to the defense of former D.C. schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, after a series of newspaper investigations and reports have been released questioning the academic and stylistic accomplishments of her embattled tenure.

Paul E. Peterson, director of Harvard's Program on Education Policy and Governance and a Hoover Institution fellow, released his own analysis that seeks to debunk the recent critiques of Rhee's accomplishments during her time in D.C. He also blogs about it here.

Peterson picks apart several studies and reports about D.C. test gains in recent years, and analyzes other factors of Rhee's tenure that could account for the district's progress in recent years. Of note, he looks at D.C.'s NAEP scores--considered the most reliable measurement of student acjievement available--to find holes in the arguments against Rhee's academic gains, even suggesting that the critiques may be more appropriately directed at her predecessors.

He concludes:

"In all the numbers Rhee’s critics have assembled, the two facts that stand out have nothing to do with test scores, but rather with student and teacher absenteeism. One does not know how quickly leaders can have an impact on student learning, but strong educational leaders are known for their impact on school culture. If we take Rhee at her word, changing culture was what she was trying to do, and those falling absenteeism indicators suggest that she may have had an effect, even in a short period of time. It’s even possible that a change in the D.C. school climate accelerated learning gains. About that one cannot be certain when only two years of NAEP data are available. But one can be quite sure that a case against Rhee has yet to be established."

Posted by Erica Green at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
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The Center on Education Policy, a D.C. based research group that has tracked student achievement since the beginning of NCLB, released a report last week that looks at trends in test data from 2003 to 2009 in many states, including Maryland. While most of the raw data can be found at mdreportcard.com, CEP has looked at trends in subgroups at both the proficient and advanced levels on the MSAs. In fourth and eighth grade, students of color, low income students and special education students are all closing the achievement gap in both reading and math.

But that doesn't mean there still aren't gaps. African Americans are far behind white, Asian and Latino students. And compared to white students, a much smaller percentage of African American students are reaching the advanced levels. It is interesting to note that most African American students are in Baltimore City and Prince George's County where gifted and talented programs are very limited compared to the county school systems. 

In addition, boys continue to fall behind girls in reading while girls are catching up to them in math. For anyone interested in looking at trends, the report provides a wealth of data put into bite size chunks.

Posted by Liz Bowie at 1:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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The Washington Post is reporting today that the Prince George's school system will have to pay foreign teachers $4.2 million in wages that were withheld from them. A federal investigation has concluded that the teachers had to pay visa application fees before they came to the United States in order to get jobs in Prince George's. The fees essentially lowered the total compensation for the foreign teachers compared to the American teachers. "It is appalling that a schoo ldistrict illegally and unfairly exploited workers who came from other countries to teach in Americand schools," said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, in a statement released today. 

Continue reading "Prince George's County owes Filipino teachers $4 million" »

Posted by Liz Bowie at 8:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
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In today's editorial, the paper's editorial board writes about Nancy Grasmick's legacy. What has been noted in the past several days, is Grasmick's enormous ability to bring varying interests together to push forward the reforms she wanted. Having watched her for more than a decade, I can say she has gained a lot of friends just by being warm and gracious in public, even to those she had majors disagreements with. She will need every bit of that charm and the steel interior, to get through the next several months. What hasn't been noted is that she has a lot of difficult work ahead to build the teacher evaluation system, a key component of Race to the Top, which may be as defining for the future of education in the state as the high school assessments or the early childhood education initiatives.

Posted by Liz Bowie at 8:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
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Today, state education reporter Liz Bowie wrote a story outlining what Maryland's education and state leaders said are the next set of challenges for the next state superintendent, who will be charged with carrying the torch of arguably the state's most respected and successful superintendent.

Many agree that the retirement of Nancy Grasmick--the longest-serving superintendent in the nation--on June 30 will be the end of a formative era in Maryland's education system. Our editorial board weighed in with a piece, "Nancy Grasmick will be a hard act to follow."  Feel free to weigh in on The Sun's poll about Grasmick's legacy.

The burning question now is: Who can follow in her footsteps?

Posted by Erica Green at 11:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
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A fundraising effort to benefit the victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan will begin in 1,500 Maryland schools on April 1 and run through May 13. Nancy Grasmick, the state superintendent of schools, is asking school systems to encourage students, who she says have shown their compassion before, to bring in their change or dollar bills to help the Japanese people. The state will partner with the American Red Cross. Maryland school children raised $1.3 million six years ago after Hurricane Katrina.

Continue reading "Schools collecting money for Japan" »

Posted by Liz Bowie at 12:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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USA Today broke a massive investigative story  Monday that looked into some of Washington D.C.'s soaring test scores in recent years. The investigation was launched by USA Today after it found that a school, Crosby S. Noyes Education Campus, went from 10 percent proficiency marks to being named a National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence for its incredible improvements.

Apparently, those results mirror a trend in D.C. in recent years. But those gains are now in question, after USA Today found the number of answers changed wrong-to-right on standardized tests was so high, that the odds that the number of erasures happened by chance aren't even comparable to winning the lottery's Powerball drawing.

According to the USA Today report, "based on documents and data secured under D.C.'s Freedom of Information Act, [USA Today] found that for the past three school years most of Noyes' classrooms had extraordinarily high numbers of erasures on standardized tests. The consistent pattern was that wrong answers were erased and changed to right ones."

"Noyes is one of 103 public schools here that have had erasure rates that surpassed D.C. averages at least once since 2008," the report said. "That's more than half of D.C. schools."

The investigation has spurred a series of questions not only about possible testing improprieties in D.C. schools, but also about the tenure of former embattled schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee.

In his column, The Washington Post's Jay Mathews called for U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to pull Noyes' Blue Ribbon status. In other states, USA Today pointed out, these discoveries have resulted in criminal investigations.

Posted by Erica Green at 5:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
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The Johns Hopkins University School of Education will be holding a panel discussion which should be of interest to many of our readers on the future of teaching. The panel includes Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers; Michael Cohen, president of Achieve; Richard Lemons, vice president of the Education Trust; and Sonja Brookins Santelises, chief academic officer of the city schools.

The discussion, free and open to the public, will be held on Monday, April 25, beginning with a reception at 6:30 p.m. at Shriver Hall on the main campus. The program will start at 7 pm. Anyone interested in attending can go online to rsvp. 

Posted by Liz Bowie at 10:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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More Maryland students are showing up prepared for the 12 years of schooling ahead, according to a story we ran today. After a decade of state initiatives aimed of better preparing children to be successful in school, a state survey which showed that 81 percent of the state's kindergartners have the academic and social skills they will need to be successful in school.

According to the story, done by my colleague Liz Bowie, the state's Ready to Learn report shows a 32 percentage-point jump in the past decade in the number of children ready when they enter kindergarten.

Suburban school districts in the Baltimore area have exceeded the state average, but in Baltimore, only 67 percent of students--an 18 percentage-point increase over last year--were deemed prepared. The school system released its own findings, which can be viewed here.  

While Baltimore city still has a ways to go to catch up to its neighboring districts, it seems the school system is on the right path. The state attributed the improvement, in part, to local districts opening pre-kindergarten programs, and the city has noted a 50 percent increase in the number of pre-k seats it has offered in the last three years.

Posted by Erica Green at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
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Since we weren't able to write stories about all of the education-related rallies that took place in Annapolis recently, I thought it'd be nice to pull together some local coverage of the events.

About 1,700 education advocates braved the rain and cold last Thursday to attend a rally (covered by the Baltimore Brew) organized by The Baltimore Education Coalition. The rally protested state funding cuts to Baltimore city schools. The school district and BEC posted some pictures from the event.

On Monday, educators, civic groups and labor unions from across the state--including the Baltimore Teachers Union--rallied against pension cuts, and in favor of full funding of education. The Sun took some video of the rally--which drew thousands--that can be seen here. Our Annapolis reporter Julie Bykowicz also covered the perspective of union ralliers, which can be viewed here.

Both rallies were deemed huge successes just based on the number of participants. This budget season, it seems educators and advocates believe that action speaks louder than words. 

Posted by Erica Green at 10:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
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Educators from around Maryland will take to Lawyer's Mall tonight to continue putting the pressure on lawmakers to fully fund education next year by maintaining the state's Thornton funding formula, and restoring millions to area school districts.  

The Maryland State Education Association has organized the "Rally to Keep the Promise," along with educators and advocates across the state. The rally will take place at 6.m. Among the speakers for tonight is "Thornton" himself-- Dr. Alvin Thornton, Chair of the Maryland State Thornton Commission, Associate Provost for Public Affairs at Howard University

The Baltimore Teachers Union will join other groups to also oppose any plans to freeze pensions, or shift teacher pension costs to local districts. While this could be what helps restore the funding to school districts, the union said its not an expense that Baltimore city can afford.  You can read the BTU's flyer for their cause here. A bus will leave from Polytechnic Institute and the BTU headquarters tonight.

Posted by Erica Green at 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
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A story just posted on the website details how Tench Tilghman Elementary/Middle School has held prayer services in preparation for the Maryland State Assessments being held this month.

The service wasn't held during the normal school day, but instead was on a Saturday at 10 am.

Central office officials didn't know about the praying and say they will investigate, but that schools should not be holding prayer services. Anyone disagree?

Posted by Liz Bowie at 7:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (17)
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Passing along a nice scholarship opportunity, received via press release.  Deadline is March 15.

"The Kohl’s Department Stores is hosting a  Kohl’s Cares® Scholarship Program will award more than $415,000 in scholarships and prizes, ranging from $50 Kohl’s gift cards to $10,000 scholarships, honoring young volunteers who have made a positive impact on their communities. Nominations for kids ages six to 18 will be accepted Feb. 1 – March 15 at kohlskids.com. 

Continue reading "Chance to nominate student volunteers for scholarships" »

Posted by Erica Green at 2:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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In an education column in today's Washington Post, Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers--the parent organization of the Baltimore Teachers Union--sounded off about KIPP Baltimore's recent threat to shut its doors in Maryland on June 30 if the BTU doesn't allow the school to set its own working conditions for its union-represented teachers. We wrote about the conflict this week.

Below are some of Weingarten's strongest excerpts from the Post column, but I'd encourage all interested to read the column in its entirety.  

In short, she says KIPP is not playing fair.

Continue reading "AFT's Randi Weingarten blasts KIPP Baltimore's tactics" »

Posted by Erica Green at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
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This morning, the Maryland State Education Association, which represents a majority of the state's teachers, released the results of a poll it commissioned from the Greenberg Quinlin Rosner Research. The poll says voters are strongly opposed to keeping state education funding level this next fiscal year. Under the state's education funding formula, the amount spent on education should rise by $100 million because public school enrollment is on the rise.

The poll done between Jan. 24 and Jan 29, says that most voters would support a combination of tax increases and cuts to spending to balance the budget.

Even when asked whether they supported keeping funding flat, in effect cutting education by $100 million, 82 of the respondents said they were opposed to such cuts. Those potential voters also said they were strongly opposed to raising the income tax or the gas tax, although they did support increasing the so-called sin taxes on tobacco and alcohol, and expanding gaming to pay for education.

Posted by Liz Bowie at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Sen. Bill Ferguson, assistant to city schools CEO Andres Alonso before he was elected in November, has proposed an education legislative package that is causing quite a stir due to its emphasis on teaching quality. We wrote the story outlining the bills today. 

Highlights include adding "ineffectiveness" as a condition for teacher dismissal. Ferguson said that while "incompetence," (also a condition, and the one generally used in dismissals) is similar, it's more subjective, and sets too high of a bar for dismissals. Effectiveness, Ferguson said, is a measure adopted by MD recently, to be used for the promotion and compensation, and it should also be used for the reverse.

The Baltimore Teachers Union, who just ratified a contract that butts heads with Ferguson's bills, said the freshman lawmaker may be jumping the gun in attempting to legislate among lawmakers, what is already a work in progress by school leaders. English is also part of the State's Council on Teacher Effectiveness, which is developing a new evaluative tool tieing student performance to 50 percent of teacher evaluations.

More importantly, union President Marietta English said, adding another condition for dismissing teachers could destroy the trust built in the district during the ratification of the new city teacher contract. (NOTE: Ferguson was part of that negotiating team for the new contract).

City schools CEO Andres Alonso however said he has long supported "ineffectiveness" as a basis for dismissing teachers.

Another teacher quality bill sought to allow charter schools more autonomy in their hiring by granting the schools the right to "mutual consent," rather than forced placement of teachers. Ferguson said the idea behind this was to ensure that charters are not stuck with educators just because they're certified, but because they truly share the charter's mission.

Ferguson's initiatives were embraced by charter operators, who said that they need more autonomy over who is in their schools for charters to really fulfill their mission of bringing innovation to the school system.

Ferguson, a Teach For America grad, ran on a education platform last year and has taken the first step in his promise to use the city as an inspiration in the statehouse.

Was this step the right step, or a misstep?

Posted by Erica Green at 2:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (18)
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School and state leaders have begun to speak out about the proposed education funding in Gov. Martin O'Malley's state budget.

In a story by our Maryland Politics Reporter Julie Bykowicz this week, education advocates, school and state leaders, including Baltimore city schools CEO Andres Alonso, outlined how the change in the state's Thornton formula--which has vastly increased education funding in the state in recent years--stands to negatively impact schools districts at a time when the state is reigning the nation in academics.

The story explains how the Thornton formula, passed by the legislature in 2002, was designed to ensure equal opportunities for students by directing more state money per pupil to poorer areas such as Baltimore than to wealthy areas such as Montgomery County. 

The new budget proposals appear to undermine that goal, with Baltimore City standing to lose more than $15 million, while Montgomery County gains more than $30 million. Both districts, however, have noted increased enrollments.

Alonso has taken a diplomatic approach in the preliminary discussions about how the school system will mitigate its shortfalls. He said the cuts would, "inevitably mean a loss in services and offerings and an increase in class size in many schools."

"We will clearly look for savings and evaluate all programs in order to ensure that the shortfall does not impact the schools," he said. "But we think it will impact the schools, because every year the cost of doing business increases, and we have reduced the central office so significantly and pushed dollars into schools so much that it will be highly unlikely that a reduction in aid won't have to be absorbed by schools."

Stay tuned.

Posted by Erica Green at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
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School was closed in some districts yesterday on a day when many high school students might have been sitting down to take midterm exams. So I began to wonder if students were trying to ask teachers what exams they would be taking the next day? And were teachers trying to answer last minute review questions? Were they texting, e-mailing, going on Facebook or even tweeting?

Posted by Liz Bowie at 1:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
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Brandon Hoffman, a 17-year-old senior at Owings Mills High School, has been disturbed by the number of times he hears anti-gay slurs in his school and wanted to do something to raise awareness about how offensive those terms are to many people. He believes athletes are more prone to this kind of bad behavior. (He runs cross country, wrestles and plays tennis.) So he and other athletes at the school will be holding a No Homo Day at Owings Mills on Friday, Jan. 14. They are making posters, plan to show a short video, and are asking other students to pledge not to use slurs that day. "Every day you should be abstaining from using these hurtful slurs," he said, but he wanted to designate a day so that other students would think twice. What he didn't expect was the outpouring of support on Facebook. Today, there are over 12,000 people around the world who are making the pledge.

Posted by Liz Bowie at 6:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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The Howard County school system will hold its second annual Poetry Out Loud competition as parto f a national meet that encouarges high school students to learn about poetry. Teh competition is presented in partnership with teh Maryland Arts Council, the National Endowment of the Arts and the Poetry Foundation.

The winner of the competition advances to the state contest. The state champion will participate in the national finals in Washington.

Joe Burris

Posted by Liz Bowie at 4:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
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 From my colleague Joe Burris:

Glen Burnie High School and Stanford University graduate Fagan Harris has been awarded a 2010 Rhodes Scholarship, one of only 32 students naitonwide, and 80 individuals worldwide, to receive the honor, county officials said.

Harris, who is currently studying in Ireland, will begin classes at Oxford University in England on Oct. 1. He attended Marley Elementary and Marley Middle School and graduated from Stanford last year.

Posted by Liz Bowie at 3:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
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Baltimore city schools CEO Andres Alonso may not have had much to say publically about the resignation of his mentor, and recently resigned New York schools chancellor Joel Klein, but he will have quite a bit to say about who takes Klein's place.

The New York Times wrote a piece  earlier this week about a new advisory panel assembled by New York's education commissioner that will help decide whether to grant Klein's replacement--publishing executive Cathie Black--a waiver from state law requiring leaders of school districts to have substantial education credentials and experience.

Alonso, who served as deputy chancellor under Klein before coming to Baltimore, was among those on the advisory panel who met in a private meeting in New York on Tuesday to discuss Black's credentials.

According to an updated story , only two of the eight education experts voted to unconditionally grant the waiver. Wonder if he was was one of them?

Posted by Erica Green at 4:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
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The fascinating story written by my colleague, Childs Walker, this week details how a war veteran is barred from a community college writing a story about the allure of combat for his English class. Charles Wittington got an A on the paper, but when his words were published in the student newspaper, college officials were concerned. Whittington wrote that killing "is something that I do not just want but something I really need so I can feel like myself."
 What do readers of the blog believe is the right course of action for the college?

Posted by Liz Bowie at 4:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Editorials in both the Washington Post and our paper today urge Gov. Martin O'Malley to go ahead with a regulation that would require 50 percent of a teacher's evaluation to be based on student achievement. A special committee of the legislature, voted against the regulation on Monday evening, however the governor has the final say.

Posted by Liz Bowie at 5:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
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Today, Erica Green has written a piece that looks at the protest brewing among teachers who want to see the vote on the BTU contract delayed until the details of the teacher evaluation system have been decided.

Posted by Liz Bowie at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
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The New Teacher Project has just put out a paper outlining six design standards for how teacher evaluations might be done. Since Maryland has convened a task force to deliberate a new model that could be used statewide for teacher evaluations, the New Teacher Project paper is timely.

I would be interested in what teachers think of the paper and how the ideas could be used in an evaluation system in the state.

Posted by Liz Bowie at 6:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
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Michelle A. Rhee, the embattled Washington, D.C., schools chancellor, may not get much love around the region, but yesterday she received the ultimate gold star for her tough tactics in leading the school system: the approval of Oprah Winfrey.

Winfrey hailed Rhee, once a Baltimore teacher, as a "Warrior Woman" in her controversial tenure overseeing and shaking up the D.C. public school system. Rhee appeared on Winfrey's Monday show, which highlighted the film, "Waiting for Superman." 

The film, due to be released in select cities on Friday, takes a critical look at the politics of education and how it's failing the nation's students. It's directed by Davis Guggenheim, who also directed "An Inconvenient Truth."  The movie's tagline reads: The fate of our country won't be decided on a battlefield, it will be determined in a classroom."  (I will definitely be checking that out).

As Rhee used her daytime-TV platform to explain her tough reign in D.C. -- which has included a mass and very public exodus of both teachers and principals -- she cited her time as a Teach for America teacher in Baltimore as solidifying for her that "children have the potential -- they can achieve."

"The children are not the problem," Rhee said, "the adults are the problem."

Winfrey offered to the brief Baltimore conversation that the city's dropout rate (which was 6.2 percent in 2009) was poor.

The chancellor went on to explain how hard it has been to fire ineffective teachers, saying that school officials "basically have to meet a criminal standard" to get rid of poor teachers. She also said it's "ludicrous" for children to wait until teachers reach their full potential to receive good instruction.

I couldn't help but notice that Rhee's responses read from a familar playbook here in Baltimore.

Anyone else finding other similarities between D.C. and Baltimore's school system leadership?

Posted by Erica Green at 1:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (25)
Categories: Around the Region
        

An exhibit of work by three dozen Maryland public high school students from 10 school districts opens this hour at the U.S. Department of Education.

The juried exhibition will hang in the headquarters building on Maryland Avenue as part of the department's student art exhibit program. Maryland is only the second state to have a show that displays work from around one state.

A ribbon cutting was held at 11 a.m.  The following students have work that is being shown: 

From Anne Arundel County: DeAndre Knight and Ashley Lim from North County High School; Louis Fratino from South County High School; and Kristin Schmit and Katie Emmitt from Southern High School.

From Baltimore City: Javonia Hartman, Nasheam Rodgers, Mark McGlothin, Gregory Jenkins, Ericka Kimbrough-Byrd, Brieawna Mason and Stacey Simmons from Heritage High School.

From Baltimore County: Katrina Navarro and Lauren Hartman from the Carver Center for Arts and Technology; Rodnique Steele and Bernadette Szrom from Patapsco High School and Center for the Arts; and Annie Bishai, Molly Broom and Emma Popp from Towson High School.

From Howard County: Briana Hanlon and Jane Yoon from Marriotts Ridge High School; Katherine Chorosinkski and Peter Favinger from River Hill High School; and Josh Tulkoff from Wilde Lake High School.

Posted by Liz Bowie at 12:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Around the Region
        

Five Maryland public schools, including Eastern Technical High in Baltimore County and Ellicott Mills Middle School in Howard County, were named National Blue Ribbon schools this morning. Two Catholic schools also were named.

The designation recognizes schools that have consistently high achievement or have improved dramatically. "This is one of the nation's most significant awards presented to public schools," state superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick said in a statement. The three other schools in the state are: Northern Middle School in Calvert County, New Market Elementary School in Frederick County and Northwestern Elementary School in Wicomico County.

The Catholic Schools were St. Louis in Clarksville and St. John the Baptist in Silver Spring.

Eastern Tech has maintained a record of high achievement over a decade, according to the state. It's High School Assessment scores were 99.7 percent in reading and 100 percent in math in 2009. About 20 percent of its students are economically disadvantaged.

Ellicott Mills also has a high percentage of students scoring well on the Maryland School Assessments, has high parent involvement and a record of outstanding music programs, according to the state.

Posted by Liz Bowie at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Around the Region
        

Mary Cary, associate superintendent for curriculum and instruction in Baltimore County, left her job this week.

Phyllis Reese, a spokeswoman for the system, said her understanding is that Cary resigned.

A longtime employee of the school system, who had once been principal of Carver Center for the Arts, Cary left the system about a decade ago to work in a upper level position at the Maryland State Department of Education. She returned to the county this summer to be the highest level academic administrator.

Posted by Liz Bowie at 4:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (24)
Categories: Around the Region
        

The Baltimore Sun is now offering text alerts to inform readers of breaking news first and fast.

Last week, those signed up for our text alerts were the first to know that the fate of City College's principal, Tim Dawson, had finally been decided after meeting the Baltimore City Schools CEO Andres Alonso.  Two days before, readers who receive our text alerts were the first to know that a City College staff member had been charged with sexually assaulting a 17-year-old student.

To sign up for text alerts, go to http://www.baltimoresun.com/services/alerts/ or text NEWS to 70701.

Posted by Erica Green at 4:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Around the Region
        

The Baltimore City school system received word Thursday that it was not among the 49 districts, schools and nonprofit organizations that would receive multimillion-dollar innovation grants from the U.S. Department of Education. The education department announced the winners of more than $650 million in Investing in Innovation, or "i3" funding, for which the city applied for about $23 million.

The city faced some stiff competition. Some 1,700 nonprofits and school districts applied for the school districts competition, including 30 in Maryland.

With the funds, the school system would have revamped the old model for how teachers are compensated with a measure called the Career Ladder that rewards teachers for the amount of professional development they get and their ability to apply what they learn, rather than paying teachers as they get more advanced degrees. The grant would have also paid for a data system to track whether the professional development that teachers are getting is having an impact in the classroom.

The other three projects would have gone toward establishing a Family Institute to give parents more information about child development and how they can help their children achieve;  a program for improving nutrition and fitness in 10 high poverty schools; and a program to do on-site, two-day reviews of schools every three years.

The school system maintained that although they did not receive the funding, they would continue to pursue the initiatives.

“The i3 grant propositions that we submitted reflects the high level of work already underway in the district," said city schools spokeswoman Edie House-Foster. "This innovative work will continue, and in the coming days we will explore other potential funding options.”

But some area institutions, some heavily invested in Baltimore's schools, did receive the financial go-ahead to start innovating.

Continue reading "City schools passed over for innovation grants, but area education entities to cash in" »

Posted by Erica Green at 8:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Around the Region
        

Now that Maryland has secured a spot as one of the 19 finalists for the $3.4 billion education give away, I'd like to hear whether readers believe the state will be a finalist. We were one of a very few states on the list that wasn't a finalist in round one this winter, so what is the chance that we wiill win? U.S. Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan said between 10 and 15 of the second round finalists will probably be designated a winner, depending on how many of the top states have large or small populations. So if a small state like Rhode Island were to be one of the winners, more money would be left for another state to get some too.

The stakes are particularly high for Prince George's and Baltimore City as they attempt to accelerate the improvements they have made in those school districts. With diminishing tax revenue the state may have a hard time not cutting education funding next year. So any extra cash the state can bring in may reduce the pain on local governments.

Posted by Liz Bowie at 9:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Around the Region
        

We have decided this year to analyze the Maryland School Assessment data in several different ways to produce rankings of elementary and middle schools. If you are able to download an Excel file on your computer, you can use the links below to call up the lists. We have also included a ranking of schools by the percentage of students scoring advanced on the tests, which some educators argue is perhaps a more valid measure of how a school is doing.

My story in Friday's paper details how the best elementary school in the state is not one from the wealthy burbs (although there are plenty of those among the top), but a small school in coal mining country just a couple miles from West Virginia -- Crellin Elementary in Garrett County. The school may have a 74 percent free and reduced lunch rate, but the principal, Dana McCauley, says that isn't going to define her students.

The school seems to be a model for how a community can come together to see that its children flourish. And it seems the same is true for many of the top schools. Far from "teaching to the test," these top schools are succeeding because they are interested in the "whole child," principals say.

UPDATE: We know a lot of people have been frustrated by not being able to see these links. So we have created a file we hope everyone will be able to see.  The first group of links is to the PDF...the second group is the downloadable excel file.

Ranking of elementary schools by students who passed:

Ranking of middle schools by students who passed

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/education/bal-middle-advancerank-pdf,0,7441688.acrobat PDF. Gdh

Elementary school students who scored advanced:

http://www.baltimoresun2.com/images/assembler/elem.adv.rank.xlsx

Middle school students who scored advanced:

http://www.baltimoresun2.com/images/assembler/mid.adv.rank.xlsx

Elementary school rankings for those who passed:

http://www.baltimoresun2.com/images/assembler/elem.pass.rank.xlsx

Middle school rankings for those who passed:

http://www.baltimoresun2.com/images/assembler/mid.pass.rank.xlsx

Posted by Liz Bowie at 6:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: Around the Region
        

The Thomas B. Fordham Institute has a report out that gives grades for each state's standards. Maryland didn't fair too well, although it was in good company. The report said the state's math standards were some of the worst in the country. In a story today we explore what the report said and get the state's response.

Maryland has recently adopted the common core standards, which is fortunate, nearly everyone agrees, because those standards are much tougher and better organized.

The interesting issue this raises is how fast can Maryland reasonably switch to the new common core standards (now adopted by half the states in the country) and can Maryland somehow rework the MSAs to reflect that switch even before the new Common Core Assessments begin in 2014?

Posted by Liz Bowie at 9:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Around the Region
        

Maryland released the results of the state assessments for grades three through eight yesterday and the results showed few gains, except in elementary school math and a couple grades of reading in middle schools. Baltimore City scores were not as impressive as last year and Baltimore County scores were mostly flat with the exception of elementary math. If you would like to look at the long list of results for every school, here's the link. Make sure you note that you can hit reverse at the top of the page and see elementary scores.

We have also put together a database for readers who would like to download an excel file and do their own analysis. Here are the links:

http://www.baltimoresun2.com/images/assembler/mid.balt.xlsx
http://www.baltimoresun2.com/images/assembler/elem.balt.xlsx

http://www.baltimoresun2.com/images/assembler/mid.state.xlsx
http://www.baltimoresun2.com/images/assembler/elem.state.xlsx

What do readers think of the results from their school, district and the state?

Posted by Liz Bowie at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Around the Region
        

In light of the governor's proposal last week to have the state pick up the tab for those expensive Advanced Placement tests,  there was interesting news out of Houston this past week. After deciding to offset the cost of AP tests, the Houston school system has seen a 47 percent jump in the number of students who are taking the exams in one year. The Houston Chronicle reports that 9,000 students took the tests last spring. The pass rate dipped a few percentage points, but officials expected that.

Here's the caveat, though. Houston required any student enrolled in an AP class to take the test.  

Posted by Liz Bowie at 1:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Around the Region
        

No one can accuse Baltimore's public school system of not pushing some new ideas in education. The system has recently filed four applications for about $23 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Education. There will be some tough competition for this money. Some 1,700 nonprofits and school districts have applied for the school districts competition, including 30 in Maryland. The first of the applications could be the most innovative because it would require a change in the old model for how teachers are compensated. The grant calls for a Career Ladder that rewards teachers for the amount of professional development they get and their ability to apply what they learn, rather than paying teachers as they get more advanced degrees. The grant would also pay for a data system to track whether the professional development that teachers are getting is having an impact in the classroom.

The other three applications would go to fund a Family Institute to give parents more information about child development and how they can help their children achieve, a program for improving nutrition and fitness in 10 high poverty schools and a program to do on-site, two-day reviews of schools every three years.

Posted by Liz Bowie at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Around the Region
        

Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., who is pledging to double the number of charter schools in the state if he is elected governor, will be meeting in Montgomery County with parents who have been prevented from opening charter schools.

Baltimore City still has the vast majority of charter schools, in part because the local school board, which must approve all charters, has been more friendly to these schools than other jurisdictions like Montgomery and Frederick counties. The city also has gotten far more applications from parents, teachers and non-profits who want to open charters.

Tomorrow morning, the Maryland state school board is going to be considering a charter school policy, although the details haven't  been released.

Posted by Liz Bowie at 5:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Around the Region
        

Maryland has 98 schools on Newsweek's annual list of "best" high schools in the country released yesterday. Perhaps we should debate what makes a high school one of the best, but Jay Mathews, the Washington Post education columnist who started judging high schools and ranking them more than a decade ago, defines it this way: how hard administrators in the school are pushing Advanced Placement and International Baccalareaute classes. More precisely, each school is given an index number that shows the number of AP or IB tests given divided by the number of graduates each year. A school has to have at least one test given for each graduate to make the list. Only 6 percent, or 1,600, of the 27,000 high schools in the country make the list. 

Continue reading "Newsweek high school ranking is out " »